Correction, not Perfection

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was originally posted on October 17, 2016)

 

Photo by Rick Hustead

 

 

 As with any behavior-modification program—which hypnotherapy is, by the way—clients typically come in with a list of all the things they believe are “wrong” with them. They can’t stay away from sweet or high-calorie/high-fat foods. They can’t give up cigarettes. They can’t get over the former spouse or lover and accept that the relationship is truly over. They don’t like to be or even feel safe when they are outside their comfort zone, an area that may not extend beyond the confines of their home. They “completely freak out” when they see a spider. And so on.

In addition to changing or abolishing the negative behavior, clients often want to know how it took hold in the first place. I couch this explanation in the context of John Kappas, Ph.D.’s model, Theory of Mind. Basically, the person learned to do “x” or adopted “y” belief by imitating, or modeling, these behaviors they observed in their social environment. A parent or guardian, peer or another role model explicitly or implicitly taught the individual to do it, and the person derived some kind of reward for doing it, too.

Another factor comes into play here, too: constant repetition of the behavior reinforces its strength and significance in the subconscious mind. There is a lot of truth to the expression, “Perfect practice makes perfect performance,” and this is especially true when it comes to reinforcing any behavior in the subconscious mind. Remember, the SCM does not know the difference between fantasy and reality, objective observation and a joke. So long as the behavior is giving the person some kind of positive feedback (pleasure), the individual will continue to do (practice) that activity. Furthermore, this practice is perfect, as far as the subconscious mind is concerned.

I help my hypnotherapy clients change unwanted behaviors or beliefs by rewriting the content of the subconscious mental script that previously reinforced those old patterns. Since everything we do and believe has been learned, these patterns can also be corrected and even un-learned when we decide they no longer work for us or serve our best interest. Then we can create a different, positive mental script and continue to reinforce the behaviors and attitudes that will help us accomplish our new self-improvement goals.

 

 

April Promotion: Hypnosis to Stop Smoking! $800 for six, weekly sessions lasting approximately one hour each week. This is a $100 savings! (A la carte sessions cost $150 each.) In addition, I will waive the $200 fee for the separate First Session if you purchase and book the six-week package up front.

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. Sara has been voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita, California, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

 

 

All About the Mental Bank Concept

To minimize risk of exposure to and spread of the COVID-19 virus and COVID-19 variants, I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. Meanwhile, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was originally posted on September 4, 2019)

 

 

  

According to John Kappas, Ph.D. everyone follows a subconscious mental script. This script is created very early in our lives, and we will behave and even think in ways that are consistent with it even when the script does not facilitate achievement of our personal goals. Fortunately, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder created The Mental Bank Concept, which posits that each of us can change the script from what we are, to what we want to or should be.

In addition to the intended benefit of changing our mental script, he promised that by doing the ledger we would also start to earn more money, or even receive monetary gifts to boost our real income. I clearly remember the inference in current HMI Director George Kappas’s challenge to the class as he speculated about how many people would actually spend two minutes each night before bed writing in our Mental Bank Ledger. After all, is two minutes’ of writing before falling asleep too big a sacrifice to make to improve your life, especially when your efforts for self-improvement are measured by earning more money in the process? When the class broke up for a break, I was one of the first people in the room to rush down the corridor to purchase a ledger.

This is how the Mental Bank Concept works: Each night, right before you go to bed, you will allocate a value (symbolic money) to specific behaviors, activities or events that have occurred during the day. You can “pay” yourself for going to work, working out at the gym/exercising, spending time with your family, attending a religious service of your denomination, etc. It doesn’t matter what the activity is so long as they reflect your efforts to change your subconscious mental script and achieve your new, positive behavior or goals. Then, you will write an affirmation to reinforce these behaviors and encourage you to continue to make these changes.

In creating the Mental Bank Concept, Dr. Kappas intended that people write in the ledger just before going to sleep because this is one of the times during the day that we are most suggestible, or amenable to learning. (The other time is the first 30 minutes after waking up in the morning.) The suggestions for the desired behavioral change will bypass the critical mind and drop right into the subconscious mind; the SCM will continue to process these thoughts and behavioral changes throughout the night, he explained.

Although this process is very simple, many adults are very reluctant (subconscious resistance) to change their lives using the Mental Bank Concept, Dr. Kappas observed. “Only 30 percent of adults will ever change their original script. Everyone else passes the pattern on. To change the behavior, you must change the subconscious script,” he warned.

I have been following the Mental Bank Concept since 2004, and it does work. The more subconscious and conscious work I do to achieve my goals, the more self-confident I feel every time I accomplish one and the greater the tangential (monetary) rewards I receive. For more information about The Mental Bank Concept, check out this video link.

Contact me today at (661) 433-9430 or send e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com to set up an appointment to experience how hypnotherapy and the Mental Bank Concept can help you achieve your goals. I will provide your first Mental Bank Ledger to help you get you started!

 

  

Limited-Time Special Offer: Free 30-minute Phone/Zoom Consultation

 January—the start of a new year—is a great time to fulfil New Year’s resolutions and complete projects you may have been putting off. Call/send me a text message at (661) 433-9430 or send me an e-mail at calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com to set up your free, 30-minute phone or Zoom consultation and find out why hypnosis and therapeutic guided imagery are such effective modalities to help you achieve your self-improvement goals and finish those projects! 

 

Offer valid through February 28, 2022. May not be combined with any other offer. Not redeemable for cash.

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. Sara has been voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita, California, three years in a row (July 2019, September 2020, July 2021). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2022

 

 

Hypnotherapy for Self-Improvement

(This blog was originally posted on March 14, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Fotolia

      One of my friends posted this quote-of-the-day on his Facebook wall: “The only person you need to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” The quote was accompanied by a picture of a man looking down at his flexed biceps. His expression looked self-critical—but that was probably the desired interpretation, based on the quote. It definitely made me think, though.

      It is very easy to become self-critical. The expression “self-improvement” implies that something is wrong or at least not as good, right or perfect as we would like it to be. Whether we are considering our business acumen, sports ability, beauty/physique, artistic talent, etc., it doesn’t take long for this evaluation to become a comparison to other people. When we compare ourselves to others, we lose sight of our own skills, talents, contributions and self-worth. We cannot be ourselves while we are trying and pretending to be someone else—and, we become angry and frustrated when we don’t fulfill those unrealistic expectations of being like or being “better than” that other person.

      The most important work I do as a hypnotherapist is to help my clients to increase their self-confidence and self-esteem. I compare these traits to an emotional compass: the lower my client’s self-esteem or self-confidence is, the lower his or her motivation and self-acceptance tend to be. I use therapeutic guided imagery to help my client envision attaining the therapeutic goal. When I construct the hypnotic script I use the client’s words to describe the traits, skills and abilities that the person already possesses that will help him or her to achieve that specified goal to reinforce the imagery.  Over time, as the person continues to use the skills and techniques that he or she has been rehearsing in hypnotherapy to achieve this goal in the real world, the person’s self-confidence and self-esteem get stronger. Furthermore, just about every aspect of the person’s social, emotional and professional life get “better”, too; and a new world of options and opportunities to achieve new challenges opens up.

      Humans have a predilection to compare every experience and every person to another, but what is going on inside you today and tomorrow is the only comparison that really matters.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

Self-Improvement

Photo courtesy of Fotilia

When our self-confidence and self-esteem are low, so too
is our ability to value ourselves and our self-worth.

   

             Yesterday, one of my friends posted this quote-of-the-day on his Facebook wall: “The only person you need to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” The quote was accompanied by a picture of a man looking down at his flexed biceps. His expression looked self-critical—but that was probably the desired interpretation, based on the quote. It definitely made me think, though.

                It is very easy to become self-critical. The expression “self-improvement” implies that something is wrong or at least not as good, right or perfect as we would like it to be. Whether we are considering our business acumen, sports ability, beauty/physique, artistic talent, etc., it doesn’t take long for this evaluation to become a comparison to other people. When we compare ourselves to others, we lose sight of our own skills, talents, contributions and self-worth. We cannot be ourselves while we are trying and pretending to be someone else—and, we become angry and frustrated when we don’t fulfill those unrealistic expectations of being like or being “better than” that other person.

                The most important work I do as a hypnotherapist is to help my clients to increase their self-confidence and self-esteem. I compare these traits to an emotional compass: the lower my client’s self-esteem or self-confidence is, the lower his or her motivation and self-acceptance tend to be. I use therapeutic guided imagery to help my client envision attaining the therapeutic goal. When I construct the hypnotic script I use the client’s words to describe the traits, skills and abilities that the person already possesses that will help him or her to achieve that specified goal to reinforce the imagery.  Over time, as the person continues to use the skills and techniques that he or she has been rehearsing in hypnotherapy to achieve this goal in the real world, the person’s self-confidence and self-esteem get stronger. Furthermore, just about every aspect of the person’s social, emotional and professional life get “better”, too; and a new world of options and opportunities to achieve new challenges opens up.

Humans have a predilection to compare every experience and every person to another, but what is going on inside you today and tomorrow is the only comparison that really matters.

               

 

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014